• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.113-121
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• 2013

The road icing forecast and snow detection system using state evaluation algorithm of multi sensor optimizes snow melting system to control spread time and amount of chemical spread application This system operates integrated of contact/non-contact sensor and infrared camera. The state evaluation algorithm of the system evaluates road freezing danger condition and snowfall condition (snowfall intensity also) using acquired data such as temperature/humidity, moisture detection and result of image signal processing from field video footage. In the field experiment, it proved excellent and reliable evaluated result of snowfall state detection rate of 89% and wet state detection rate of 94%.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-241
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• 2016

This study investigated the cause of the heavy snowfall that occurred in the East Coast of Korea from 6 February to 14 February 2014. The synoptic conditions were analyzed using blocking index, equivalent potential temperature, potential vorticity, maritime temperature difference, temperature advection, and ground convergence. During the case period, a large blocking pattern developed over the Western Pacific causing the flow to be stagnant, and there was a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Korean Peninsula because of this arrangement. The case period was divided into three parts based on the synoptic forcing that was responsible for the heavy snowfall; detailed analyses were conducted for the first and last period. In the first period, a heavy snowfall occurred over the entire Korean Peninsula due to strong updrafts from baroclinic instability and a low pressure caused by potential vorticity located at the mid-troposphere. In the lower atmosphere, a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Eastern Korea intensified the easterly airflow and created a convergence zone near the ground which strengthened the upslope effect of the Taebaek Mountain range with a cumulative fresh snowfall amount of 41 cm in the East Coast region. In the last period, the cold air nestled in the Maritime Province of Siberia and Manchuria strengthened much more than that in the first half and extended to the East Sea. The temperature difference between the 850 hPa air and the SST was large and convective clouds developed over the sea. The highest cumulative fresh snow amount of 39.7 cm was recorded in the coastal area during this period. During the entire period, vertically oriented equivalent potential temperature showed neutral stability layer that helped the cloud formation and development in the East Coast. The 2014 heavy snowfall case over the East Coast provinces of Korea were due to: 1) stagnation of the system by blocking pattern, 2) the dynamic effect of mid-level potential vorticity of 1.6 PVU, 3) the easterly air flow from North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system, 4) the existence of vertically oriented neutral stable layer, and 5) the expansion of strong cold air into the East Sea which created a large temperature difference between the air and the ocean.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.645-661
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• 2013

The synoptic, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a heavy snowfall event that occurred in Seoul metropolitan area on 27 to 28 December 2010 was investigated. During this period there was a distinctive case that was identified as a polar low. We analyzed surface and upper level weather charts, snowfall amount, sea surface temperature, satellite imagery, sounding, and the National Center for Environmental Prediction global $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ reanalysis data. The polar low developed in an area where there was strong baroclinicity in the lower level aided by strong conditional instability due to 925 hPa warm air advection and 700 hPa cold air advection. The development mechanism of polar low is due, in part, to the tropopause folding, which advected stratospheric air increasing potential vorticity in mid-level and inducing cyclonic vorticity and convergence in low-level. Eventually clouds developed and there were snowfall total of 10 cm in Seoul metropolitan area and as much as 20 cm in southern parts of Korea. During the snowfall development, there was a $-45^{\circ}C$ cold core at 500 hPa and shortwave maintained $3-5^{\circ}$ separation with surface trough, which favored the development of polar low located in the warm sector and cyclonic advection area. The height of the dynamical tropopause lowered to 700 hPa during the peak development and increase in potential vorticity allowed strong vertical motion to occur. Overall, there was a close relationship between the development of snowfall and tropopause undulation. The heaviest snowfall occurred east of the tropopause folding where strong cyclonic vorticity, vertical motion, and moisture advection all coincided while the polar low was passing through the Korean peninsula.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.9-36
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• 2009

Two heavy snowfall events occurred in Yeongnam and Yeongdong regions of the Korean Peninsula during the period from 4 to 6 March 2005 are analyzed. The events were developed by two different meso-scale snow clouds associated with an extratropical low passing over the Western Pacific. Based on synoptic data, GOES-9 satellite images, and precipitation amount data, the events were named as Sokcho and Busan cases, respectively. We analyzed the development mechanism of the events using meterological variables from the NCEP(National Centers for Environmental Prediction) /NCAR(National Centers for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data such as potential vorticity(PV), divergence, tropopause undulation, static stability, and meridional wind circulation. The present analyses show that in the case of Sokcho, the cyclonic circulation in the lower atmosphere in the strong baroclinic region induced the cyclonic circulation in the upper atmosphere. The cyclonic circulation in the lower and upper atmosphere caused a heavy snowfall in the Sokcho region. In the case of Busan, the strong cyclonic circulation in the upper atmosphere was initiated by the stratospheric air intrusion with the high positive PV into the troposphere during the tropopause folding. The upper strong cyclonic circulation enhanced the cyclonic circulation in the lower disturbed atmosphere due to the extratropical low. This lower cyclonic circulation in turn, intensified the upper cyclonic circulation, that caused a heavy snowfall in the Busan region.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.247-257
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• 2006

The Yeong-dong heavy snowfall forecast supporting system has been developed during the last several years. In order to construct the conceptual model, we have examined the characteristics of heavy snowfalls in the Yeong-dong region classified into three precipitation patterns. This system is divided into two parts: forecast and observation. The main purpose of the forecast part is to produce value-added data and to display the geography based features reprocessing the numerical model results associated with a heavy snowfall. The forecast part consists of four submenus: synoptic fields, regional fields, precipitation and snowfall, and verification. Each offers guidance tips and data related with the prediction of heavy snowfalls, which helps weather forecasters understand better their meteorological conditions. The observation portion shows data of wind profiler and snow monitoring for application to nowcasting. The heavy snowfall forecast supporting system was applied and tested to the heavy snowfall event on 28 February 2006. In the beginning stage, this event showed the characteristics of warm precipitation pattern in the wind and surface pressure fields. However, we expected later on the weak warm precipitation pattern because the center of low pressure passing through the Straits of Korea was becoming weak. It was appeared that Gangwon Short Range Prediction System simulated a small amount of precipitation in the Yeong-dong region and this result generally agrees with the observations.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_1
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• pp.217-229
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• 2020

Recently, weather changes in Korea have intensified due to global warming, and the five major natural disasters that occur mostly include heavy rains, typhoons, storms, heavy snow, and earthquakes. Busan is vulnerable to snow disaster, given that the amount of natural disaster damage in Busan accounts for more than 50% of the total amount in the entire metropolitan cities in Korea, and that the Busan area includes many hilly mountains. In this study, we attempted to identify vulnerable areas for snowfall disasters in Busan areas using the geographic information system (GIS) with the data for both geographical and anthropogenic characteristics. We produced the maps of vulnerable areas for evaluating factors that include altitude, slope, land cover, road networks, and demographics, and overlapped those maps to rank the vulnerability to snowfall disasters as the 5th levels finally. To weight each evaluating factor, we used an entropy method. The riskiest areas are characterized by being located in mountainous areas with roads, including Sansung-ro in Geumjeong-gu, Mandeok tunnel in Buk-gu, Hwangnyeongsan-ro in Suyeong-gu, and others, where road restrictions were actually enforced due to snowfall events in the past. This method is simple and easy to be updated, and thus we think this methodology can be adapted to identify vulnerable areas for other environmental disasters.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2014

This study compared ensemble mean and probability forecasts of snow depth amount associated with winter storm over South Korea on 28 December 2012 at five operational forecast centers (CMA, ECMWF, NCEP, KMA, and UMKO). And cause of difference in predicted snow depth at each Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) was investigated by using THe Observing system Research and Predictability EXperiment (THORPEX) Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) data. This snowfall event occurred due to low pressure passing through South Sea of Korea. Amount of 6 hr accumulated snow depth was more than 10 cm over southern region of South Korea In this case study, ECMWF showed best prediction skill for the spatio-temporal distribution of snow depth. At first, ECMWF EPS has been consistently enhancing the indications present in ensemble mean snow depth forecasts from 7-day lead time. Secondly, its ensemble probabilities in excess of 2~5 cm/6 hour have been coincided with observation frequencies. And this snowfall case could be predicted from 5-day lead time by using 10-day lag ensemble mean 6 hr accumulated snow depth distribution. In addition, the cause of good performances at ECMWF EPS in predicted snow depth amounts was due to outstanding prediction ability of forming inversion layer with below $0^{\circ}C$ temperature in low level (below 850 hPa) according to $35^{\circ}N$ at 1-day lead time.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.445-459
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• 2021

This study uses a cloud-resolving storm simulator (CReSS) to understand the individual effect of determinant meteorological factors on snowfall characteristics in the Yeongdong region based on the rawinsonde soundings for two snowfall cases that occurred on 23 February (Episode 1) and 13 December (Episode 2) 2016; one has a single-layered cloud and the other has two-layered cloud structure. The observed cloud and precipitation (snow crystal) features were well represented by a CReSS model. The first ideal experiment with a decrease in low-level temperature for Episode 1 indicates that total precipitation amount was decreased by 19% (26~27% in graupel and 53~67% in snow) compared with the control experiment. In the ideal experiment that the upper-level wind direction was changed from westerly to easterly, although total precipitation was decreased for Episode 1, precipitation was intensified over the southwestern side (specifically in terrain experiment) of the sounding point (128.855°E, 37.805°N). In contrast, the precipitation for Episode 2 was increased by 2.3 times greater than the control experiment under terrain condition. The experimental results imply that the low-level temperature and upper-level dynamics could change the location and characteristics of precipitation in the Yeongdong region. However, the difference in precipitation between the single-layered experiment and control (two-layered) experiment for Episode 2 was negligible to attribute it to the effect of upper-level cloud. The current results could be used for the development of guidance of snowfall forecast in this region.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.54-57
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• 2005

This study examines moisture supplement from the warm ocean in snowfalls of two cases and heavy rainfall of Typhoon case. The QuickSCAT wind is used to evaluate the convergence of moisture fluxes in the storms from the sea in estimation of the amount of heavy snowstorm and rainfall. The results show that enough water vapor transport from ocean to atmosphere induced the severe storms, because strong QuickSCAT -derived vertical velocity nearly concurred with heavy snowfall and rainfall. In the present study, we attempted to show that QuickSCAT wind can be used to forecast the severe weather events, such as heavy snowfall and rainfalls.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2005.05b
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• pp.221-224
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• 2005

In order to traffic safety during winter season, snowfall and cold area has been spread the deicing chemicals, and the spraying amount is increasing every year. Use of deicing chemicals has been and will continue to be a major part of highway snow and ice control methods. Chloride-containing chemicals such as calcium chloride or rock salt are main deicers for the road. Extensive use of chloride deicers is, however, the source of substantial cost penalties due to their corrosive action and acceleration to deterioration concrete structures. Deterioration due to de-icer salt occurs in practice in concrete pavement, dike, barrier and similar structure. This paper reports the results of effect of de-icer salt on durability of concrete structure in winter. To protect concrete structure from damage by de-icer salt in winter, the exposure test was performed using three methods such as increase in design strength upto 35MPa application of granulated blast furnace slag powder, and concrete sealer. Of these, the method of increase in design strength upto 35MPa showed better durability for deterioration by de-icer salt.